I Could Have Saved Him
by B-Man33
Summary: After Aayla lose's all of her men including her best friend during a suprise Separatist attack she blames herself for all their deaths and is thrown into a deep deprestion. Now it is up to Kit to bring his friend out of the depression.


It was a very tough time for Jedi Knight Aayla Secura. She had lost most of her troops, the 327th Star Corps along with her Star Destroyer _Intrepid _during a surprise attack from a droid star ship. The ship came out of hyperspace so quick that Aayla and her troops did not have time to prepare before the droids started their attack. The _Intrepid _attempted to escape the attack, but their escape was foiled when a barrage of enemy fire destroyed the _Intrepid's _hyperdrive system. With no hyperdrive system the droid star ship forced the _Intrepid_ into a nearby asteroid field. Once inside the asteroid field the _Intrepid _could not go anywhere without the ship being greatly damaged. This allowed the droid ship to dock and board the _Intrepid_. Commander Bly wanted to stand and fight against the droids, but Aayla disagreed and ordered everybody to the escape pods. They had to hurry as the droids had already breached the hull of the ship and were now onboard. The crew of the _Intrepid _were scrambling in every direction trying to board an escape pod. Aayla and several of the clones were making their way to the pods while trying to hold off the droids. But they soon realized that they were too greatly outnumbered and retreated. Aayla and the clones reached one of the escape pods in the back of the _Intrepid_. She got all of the clones in when she realized that Bly was not with her. She quickly radioed him.

"Bly come in. Where are you" said Aayla.

"I'm back near the communications room sir. All of the passages to the escape pods are blocked" responded Bly.

"Stay where you are. I'm coming back for you" said Aayla.

"No you can't. The droids are making their way to the escape pods as we speak. There are too many of them sir" said Bly.

"But I can't leave you Bly" said Aayla.

"Don't worry sir I will be fine. You have to get out of here. The droids are shutting down all of the escape pods. It's only a matter of time before they re……..". The transmission cut off their.

"Bly. Bly. Come in Bly. BLY. NOOOOOOOOOO" screamed Aayla.

A large explosion came from down the hallway. Aayla could see through the smoke a line of droids.

"Sir we have to get out of here NOW" yelled one of the clones.

Aayla just stood there for a few moments before turning around and jumping into the escape pod. The hatch closed behind her and one of the clones activated the launch button. The escape pod was launched from the ship and out into the asteroid field. One of the clones turned on the scanner to locate the other escape pods. Of the 50 escape pods that had been on the _Intrepid_ only 17 were able to escape before being shut down by the droids. Acting quickly all 17 pods were piloted to a cave located within a large nearby asteroid. Through the bay window Aayla watched in horror as she saw her ship being destroyed, along with her crew and one of her closest friends. When all of the pods were safely inside cave a transmission was sent out to any nearby Republic ships. Luckily the starship _Revolution_ led by Jedi Master Kit Fisto was only a few parsecs away from their location. When the enemy ship had completed its mission and made its jump to hyperspace the _Revolution _arrived and rescued the survivor's.

That was one week ago.

The survivor's of the _Intrepid _were assigned to work on the _Revolution _until they could be relocated elsewhere.

Aayla Secura did not come out of her private quarters much since they had been rescued. She only came out to eat and to join Kit during meetings with the Council. Other than that she stayed locked in her room. She would usually refuse to communicate with anybody unless it was for an urgent reason. This started to worry Kit.

Late one night Kit was making his way through the _Revolution _for it was his night to be on patrol duty. As he was making his way down one of the private quarter hallways he noticed that there was light coming from one of the rooms. That room happened to be Aayla's. Seeing as there was no activity reported Kit decided to see how she was holding up. He knocked on her door. There was no reply. He knocked on it again. Still no reply. Instead of knocking again Kit used the Force to open it.

The light was coming from a small table next to the bed. On the bed was the blue Twi-lek Jedi, sitting up against the wall, hugging her knees. She seemed to be staring off into nothing. Even as Kit made his way over she did not even move her eyes. He sat down on the bed next to her.

"Hey. I just wanted to see how you were holding up" said Kit.

She did not respond.

"Are you feeling ok Aayla?" asked Kit in a bit of a concerned tone.

Once again there was silence. The silence was broken a few seconds later by Aayla.

"Kit am I a failure as a Jedi?" asked Aayla.

"What?" responded Kit.

"Do you think that I am a failure as a Jedi?" asked Aayla.

"No of course you are not a failure as a Jedi. Why in the name of the force would you ever think that?" asked Kit.

"Because I failed to save all of my men" said Aayla.

"You did not fail Aayla. You were able to save as many as you could which is all that matters" said Kit.

"But as a Jedi I am supposed to save the lives of as many people as I possibly can" said Aayla.

"Which you did" responded Kit.

"But I could have saved more. I could have gone back for them" said Aayla.

Aayla got up from her bed and walked over to a shelf hanging above her desk. From the shelf she grabbed a tall, thin glass vase that contained a single flower. It was a gift from one of her troopers Boxer. He gave it to her after she saved his life during a mission to one of the droid listening posts. He was trapped underneath a series of collapsed pipes when the rest of the team was making their way back to the hanger to escape. He thought that he was not going to make it when Aayla showed up out of nowhere and freed him. She could have left him, but she risked her own life and the lives of the other clones to rescue him. He said that she was the best General that he had ever worked with. Boxer was one of the fatalities during the _Intrepid _attack.

Aayla just stared at the vase for a few moments. The with all of her strength she chucked it against the wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces. The flower simply fell to the floor, sitting in the pool of water around the many tiny glass shards.

"I don't deserve such a gift, not after I just let that same trooper die" said Aayla, with anger and sadness in her voice.

Kit just sat there on the bed and said nothing. He just looked at Aayla, shocked to see someone that he knew very well, one if not the most courageous and brave hearted women he had ever met, so upset and weak. Kit and Aayla have known each other for many, many years and she never let herself look weak in front of anybody. This was a side of Aayla that Kit had never seen before and it made his heart ache to see a good friend in so much pain.

"Aayla the Council is not going to assign you a punishment for what happened. There was nothing that you could have done to prevent this" said Kit.

"I don't care about that Kit. I could care less if the Council wanted to punish me" said the upset Twi-lek.

"Then what is making you hurt so much. I can sense there is something else on your mind besides the attack" said Kit.

"It's nothing" said Aayla.

"It is obviously not something if you are this state. Aayla remember you can tell me anything. I am your friend and I care very deeply about your feelings. Whatever else is bothering you, you know that you can trust me with anything" said Kit.

The room fell silent for a few moments.

"It's just that…….I failed to keep a promise to Bly" said Aayla in a quick tone of voice.

"And what promise was that?" asked Kit in a soft tone.

"It was about eight months ago. My troops and I had just finished a mission on Ichtor 8. We had been assigned to destroy a small Separatist weapons factory. Our mission was successful, but many of my troopers were badly injured during an explosion in the main assembly line room of the factory. Bly was among the injured. While Bly was in recovery I had a talk with him. He had me make a promise to him that no matter what happened we would both finish every mission together from then to the end of the war. I told him that I would never break that promise".

Aayla made her way back over to the bed and sat down next to Kit. She buried her face in her hands. Her whole body was shaking and after a few moments she started to cry.

Kit could not stand to see her this way. He wanted to make her feel better, but was not sure how. He simply did the first thing that popped into his head. He threw his arms around her and pulled her into a deep hug. He gently stroked her headtails while rubbing her back, not letting go of her for even a second. He then felt two arms wrap around his waist and felt Aayla push her body up against Kits. She buried her face deep into Kits shoulder and continued to cry.

"It is going to be alright Aayla. I promise you that" said Kit.

"Bly was my best friend. I swore to him that I would keep his promise and I let him die. I could have gone back and saved him, but I didn't. I could have saved him" cried Aayla.

"If you had gone back to save him Aayla you would have been killed to. Just think if you had died I would have been in the same state you are in now. You're my best friend and I could not bare the thought of losing you" said Kit.

Aayla lifted her head to look up at Kit. She was able to force a smile and Kit gently wiped the tears from her eyes. The two friends just stared at each other for what seemed like forever until Aayla closed her eyes and rested her head on Kits shoulder once again. Kit wrapped his arms around her tighter, not wanted to let her go.

"I'm sure that Bly is very proud of you Aayla. He is probably looking down on us right now" said Kit.

The two Jedi eventually fell asleep, still in each other's arms.

**AUTHORS NOTE – OK I HAVE TO SAY IN MY OPINION THAT THIS IS NOT SOME OF MY BEST WORK. THIS PAST MONTH HAS BEEN VERY, VERY STRESSFUL ON ME AT SCHOOL. IT HAD TAKEN ME A VERY LONG TIME TO FINALLY FINISH THIS STORY. I AM HAVING MAJOR WRITERS BLOCK RIGHT NOW SO I PROBABLY WON'T HAVE ANOTHER STORY PUBLISHED FOR A WHILE. I AM ALWAYS LOOKING FOR HELP FROM MY READERS SO ANY AND ALL HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. HOLLA.**


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